


Time Out

by K_G



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Blackrom, M/M, brief but there, kismesitude, tw: suicidal ideation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-18
Updated: 2015-03-18
Packaged: 2018-03-18 10:36:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3566564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/K_G/pseuds/K_G
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dirk has been overworking himself, Arquius tries to send him to his room. Dirk is a stubborn ass. In the ensuing verbal fracas, Dirk realizes he might actually have gotten himself into a relationship.<br/>He hates that, but not in the way he thought he would.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time Out

  
* _Beep.*_

“No.”

_*Beep.*_

“No.”

“Beep.”

“Shitting hell!” Dirk sputtered, spinning on his chair and sending all his work tumbling to the ground in a disarrayed heap. He heard the tinkle of breaking glass.

“Hello, Dirk.”

“Can you please wear a bell or something?” Dirk snarled, extending a leg and planting his foot on Arquius’s navel. He shoved, and the sprite bobbed back a little, allowing him to slide off the chair and crouch to start gathering his things.

“It seems your reflexes are duller than usual today.” A curtain of red hair obscured Dirk’s vision as Arquius flipped upside down in front of him, blocking his view. The trademark toothy grin his sprite was giving him was even more obnoxious at this angle. “And to be quite frank, my dude, you look like a pile of hoofbeast sh-iiii-RRRK-t.”

“Stop speaking. Or if you can’t manage that, at least stop trying to swear.” Dirk blew out his breath between clenched teeth. “And that’s pretty damn rich, coming from the guy who perpetually looks like he just finished getting his ass beat in a dark alley.”

“It is hardly my fault you get antsy when we’re out in public.” The grin spread, revealing more crooked fangs. Dirk’s only response was an inarticulate growl. “Although I can’t really blame you. Of horse-shoe have trouble keeping your hands off me, still being made of meat and thus, slave to your baser desires.”

“Considering you’re oh-so-superior to us lesser beings, it’s kind of amazing that even an  _advanced_ construct like yourself can still be an arrogant hypocrite. And horse-shoe? Dude. Reaching.” Dirk said after a moment of silence. He pushed him out of the way again, glowering at a tiny broken glass tube. “God damn it.”

“Did you break your toy? Perhaps you shouldn’t be working with delicate equipment when you are so lethargic.”

“Why are you even here, I thought not answering your messages would send a clear enough signal even for you.” Having successfully gathered the intact parts of his project, he started to get back up.

And smacked the back of his head on the underside of the desk.

“Stop whinnying. It has ceased to be entertaining.” Arquius rolled in midair, re-orienting himself so as to haul his human to his feet. Dirk noted with a great deal of resentment that there wasn’t a single hair out of place on the other male’s head.

Fucking sprite magic.

He tried to jerk his arm out of Arquius’s grip, but between his lack of sleep and the ridiculous strength of the hand on his bicep, it was an effort made in vain.

“If you make one more horse pun so help me I will-“

“What?” The grin was gone now, replaced with tight-lipped disapproval. “Go brozerk on my posterior?”

“…That’s not what I was going to say.”

“Of course not.” Arquius was not letting go. Dirk was becoming concerned. He could deal, albeit poorly, with his sprite’s messed up sense of humour. When the smile vanished though, it usually indicated Dirk had crossed some invisible line. What that line signified, he didn’t know. Arquius probably wouldn’t tell him even if he asked.

The human tugged again, but promptly stopped when the slight tightening of fingers on his skin made him hiss with pain. It was easy to forget that keeping his otherworldly strength in check was a conscious choice for Arquius. It did not take much to remind Dirk that, if they had a serious fight and the sprite landed a punch, he’d probably be reduced to a cool looking smear on a wall.

Sometimes he was tempted by that idea.

“You are going to your respiteblock and you are going to sleep.”

“No I’m not.”

“Yes you are.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.”

“No. Now let me go and get the hell out of my apartment.”

“I think we both know that there is a zero percent chance of that happening, Dirk. Now stop being such a lood-icrossly stubborn foal and do as I command.”

“Pretty sure we’re in the wrong quadrant for this shit. You’re mighty close to being unfaithful to your palebud here, bro.” Arquius flinched at that, and then he snarled.

“You  _dare-_ You cannot even hope to fathom the relationship between Nepeta and I! Your accusation is extremely improper and you  _will_ apologize at once.”

“Nah.”

“I will destroy you!” The hand clamped down further, spittle flecked across Dirk’s face as the sprite leaned in, a vein pulsing hard on his forehead. Abruptly, Arquius pulled back, shaking his head and muttering to himself. “Chill. Be chill. Chill as a nice frosty glass of butler-squeezed milk.”

“You are so easy to rile up,” Dirk sneered. “You might like playing headgames, but all I need to do is push one button and you turn into a  _mindless brute._ ” 

“No more, Strider.”

“If I start bleating like a goat, will you go all gruff on me? Maybe you’re the one who needs a nap and a pap, not me.”

At that, Arquius growled and tossed Dirk skyward, grabbing his ankle just before the human’s head had another chance to get up close and personal with a hard surface. Yanked back down, Dirk found himself tucked under the sprite’s arm, legs dangling in the air.

“You will stop. Or I will make you stop. I do not care if I have to tie you down to your bed, Dirk. You will sleep, and when you awaken you will behave in a manner that behooves you.” Arquius was staring straight ahead, eyebrows drawn tight. A trail of orange blood – or maybe ectoplasm, Dirk still wasn’t sure and wasn’t about to ask for a sample – snaked down his chin where fangs had lacerated his lips. Why the guy’s blood and sweat were orange was a mystery for the ages. But that wasn’t Dirk’s primary concern at that moment. 

“Or what?” The human asked, the venom leaving his tone to be replaced with weariness.  “You’ll kill me?”

“No. I would not give you the satisfaction.” Dirk’s bedroom door was shoved open, and it slammed against the wall of his room. One of his shitty swords fell off a shelf. “I will simply leave you alone to stew in your own self-loathing.”

On the surface, that didn’t sound like much of a threat, but whatever witty retort might have sprang to Dirk’s lips shrivelled and died there.

With no-one else to bounce his less family-friendly thoughts off, Dirk would start to splinter again. If he was stuck in an echo-chamber with nothing but his self-hatred to scream at the walls, it wouldn’t end well. They both knew that.

“I can’t believe you’re blackmailing me so I’ll go to sleep.” He let his head hang, defeated. Doing so meant swallowing his pride, but if he kept pushing he’d lose something he valued far more than a broken glass cylinder.

He twitched.

That was a revelation. Not a welcome one, either. 

 Dirk put up only a token resistance to having his shades pulled off and being tucked into bed – Arquius didn’t actually tie him down, and he wasn’t sure if he was disappointed or not about that. He was too busy ruminating on the fact that he was actually in a relationship, rather than a casual hate-fucking fling.

Wriggling one arm free of his soft fabric prison, he grabbed his sprite by his swollen muscled tail before Arquius could float out the door.

“Hey. Come here.” Dirk left no room for argument in his tone, and with his eyes bare it quite a compelling order. Arquius turned back, opening his mouth with the intent to question him, but Dirk released the tail and instead balled his fist in the sprite’s shirt, straining to sit up so that he could meet those still bleeding lips half way.

Pulling his other hand free, Dirk caught up a handful of the artificially perfect crimson hair and used it to draw Arquius closer. He probed the gashes left in those otherwise flawless lips with his tongue and confirmed that yup, that was blood.

With an abrupt shove, Dirk ended the kiss before it could even really begin. His right hand came away with a handful of red strands, and he smirked. Arquius seemed a little dazed, running his thumb over his swelling lip.

“Oh.”

“Now get the hell out of here so I can get my beauty sleep.”

“Dirk-“

“Giddy up, bro. I can’t get my shut-eye with your loathsome mug hanging over me.”

Arquius stared at him.

“Dirk, I-“

“Hate me, I know. I hate you too. I can’t see that changing any time soon, either.”

The sprite chuffed a laugh.

“Well, I was actually going to say I hope you have a fu-AAAArrckk-ing doozy of a nightmare. But I suppose the sentiment is the same.” The grin was back, and Dirk flipped him off before rolling over to press his face into a pillow.

He heard the door click shut, and closed his eyes.

The next morning he would discover that Arquius had drawn poorly censored horse cocks all over his blueprints, and then there would be hell to pay. 

But for the time being, Dirk was at peace. 

 


End file.
